More than 1 in 10 Tennessee residents under 65 don't have health insurance

Data: U.S. Census Bureau ; Note: Estimated from administrative and survey data; Chart: Axios Visuals

The number of Tennesseans under 65 without health insurance has decreased over the last couple of decades, according to new Census Bureau data , but still remains higher than the national average.

By the numbers: Around 11.1% of people in the state under the age of 65 were uninsured in 2022 — an improvement from 15.9% in 2006.

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• Nationally, the uninsured rate is around 9.5%.

Zoom in: The uninsured rate is higher than the statewide average in some of Tennessee's rural counties. Many of those same communities have grappled with hospital closures in recent years.

• The county with the highest rate of uninsured residents is Pickett County, along the Kentucky border, where 16.8% of the residents lacked health insurance.

Davidson County's uninsured rate sat at 12.7%, according to the Census data.

• Williamson County had the state's lowest uninsured rate: 5.7%.

Data: U.S. Census Bureau ; Note: Estimated from administrative and survey data; Map: Kavya Beheraj/Axios

The big picture: The uninsured rate fell in 627 U.S. counties and increased in only 23 between 2021 and 2022 — indicating a trend toward more Americans being covered.

• Coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act and social safety net policies enacted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic are helping reduce the uninsured rate, per the health policy nonprofit KFF .

Yes, but: More recent preliminary data shows an uptick in the overall uninsured rate as pandemic-era aid expired.

Reality check: Tennessee is 1 of 10 states that have yet to expand Medicaid eligibility to more residents under the ACA. The issue has failed to gain traction among the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly.

State of play: An analysis last year from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that expanding Medicaid coverage here could lead to insurance coverage for an additional 151,000 Tennesseans.